Written Answers Friday 23 February 2007

Scottish Executive

Crofting

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it estimates will be available under the new Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP); whether there will be as much funding provided for crofting communities under the programme as there was under the Crofting Community Development Scheme (CCDS); whether it will provide estimates of the amount which will be available for those parts of Scotland which were eligible to make applications under the CCDS, and whether it will submit any application for structural funding in this connection.

Ross Finnie: Scotland has been allocated approximately £240 million from the EU over the 2007-13 period. In addition, there will be money from the Scottish Executive – which will provide the majority of the funding – and subject to agreement with the EU, receipts from voluntary modulation. I am unable to confirm these amounts at this stage because they will both depend on the outcome of on-going negotiations in Brussels on the voluntary modulation regulation.

  As with the SRDP, the structural funds programme for 2007-13 is still to be finalised with the Commission. However, dedicated funds will be available for the Highlands and Islands, under the European Regional Development Fund and the European Structural Fund, to support a range of economic, social and community development projects. These funds will be available for all relevant projects to bid into.

Dentistry

Richard Lochhead (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients in each local authority area were registered with an NHS dentist in each of the last five years, also showing year-on-year percentage changes and national totals and expressed as a percentage of all dental patients.

Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is not available by local authority area. Information on registrations by NHS board area can be found at: http://www.isdscotland.org/dental .

Dentistry

Richard Lochhead (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what percentage of dentists have returned to or decided to continue in the NHS as a result of the additional funding made available for this purpose, broken down by NHS board.

Lewis Macdonald: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-31502 on 13 February 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Dentistry

Richard Lochhead (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dentists have (a) successfully and (b) unsuccessfully applied for additional funding earmarked for encouraging dentists to (i) return to or (ii) continue in the NHS, broken down by NHS board.

Lewis Macdonald: For independent general dental practitioners:

  Information regarding the Golden Hello Recruitment and Retention Allowances and Remote Areas Allowance are contained in tables 12.1, 12.2, and 12.3 of the 2005-2006 Scottish Dental Practice Board Annual Report.There have been 126 successful and no unsuccessful claims for the Vocational Training Golden Hello.

Dentistry

Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether orthodontic patients can be reimbursed for work undertaken privately due to a lack of available NHS specialists.

Lewis Macdonald: It is not the practice of NHS boards to reimburse patients for work undertaken privately.

  The Executive is working with NHS Highland to improve orthodontic services and waiting times.

European Union

Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the four EU regions, Catalonia, Baden-Württemberg, Lombardy and Rhône Alpes, which have signed an economic co-operation agreement known as the "Four Motors for Europe" have invited Scotland to be involved, or attend any of their events as an observer, as they have done for Wales and Flanders.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive supported the Multi-Regional International Business Programme from 2002-05. This exchange programme for business undergraduates was an initiative of the "Four Motors for Europe" network. Scottish involvement arose from the Co-operation Agreement between Catalonia and Scotland and our view continues to be that bilateral work is the most effective use of our resources.

Health

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any proposals from NHS Lanarkshire for approval in relation to planned capital spending on the accident and emergency units at (a) Hairmyres Hospital and (b) Wishaw Hospital and, if so, what the details were of the proposals.

Lewis Macdonald: NHS Lanarkshire has submitted its Programme Initial Agreement document, An Investment Framework for Improving Health Services in Lanarkshire, for consideration and approval by the Health Department Capital Investment Group in due course. This document sets out NHS Lanarkshire’s planned developments for acute, community, and primary care premises over the years 2007 to 2014 and provides a strategic context for individual business cases for implementing these plans.

  Detailed proposals for the individual hospital developments will be developed through the business case process, the timetable for which is set out in the Programme Initial Agreement.I have arranged for NHS Lanarkshire’s Programme Initial Agreement paper to be lodged with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41995).

Local Government Finance

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive

Mr Tom McCabe: As in previous years, the Scottish Executive does not intend to publish a response to the Audit Scotland report Overview of the Local Authority Audits 2006 .